Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 7, 2011 (IPS) - As UN Women, the new United Nations agency dedicated to
enhancing gender equality, releases its first major report
following the organisation's launch early this year, its most
significant finding may be the shared challenges
faced by women across the globe.

"Despite the fact that women's lives all over the world are very
different in many ways, a lot of the challenges that women face in
very different countries are actually quite similar," said the
report's lead author, Laura Turquet, in an interview with IPS.

She noted similarities between Europe and South Africa, Rwanda and
Nepal. "So it's not particularly about level of income," she said,
"it's actually about approaches that governments take to address
these problems."

And the premier edition of the "Progress of the World's Women"
report, released Wednesday, highlights the importance of the justice
system in conquering these challenges.

"We chose justice for the theme of our first report because, really,
we think it's an issue that underpins all of the things that UN
Women
cares about," explained Turquet. "It really underpins gender
equality."

Women in the United Nations System

"Where we see women
better represented in
political decision-making,
we also see the policies
that reflect women's lives,"
Laura Turquet, lead author
of the UN Women report,
told IPS.

She said that women's
representation is still a
major challenge to
achieving gender equality -
both in developing and
developed countries.

"I think there's always
going to be resistance
where you're challenging
entrenched power
imbalances," she said.

However, she noted one
sphere in which some
progress could easily be
made: "It would be
wonderful to have a woman
Secretary-General of the
UN," she conceded.

The recent re-election of
Ban Ki-moon's to another
5-year term left some
wondering when a female
leader would get her turn.

But, while the United
Nations system has not
reached equal gender
parity, UN Women chief
Michelle Bachelet said, "It's
not bad at all."

"We have more women in
decision-making positions
than ever in the history,"
Bachelet told IPS, "and we
have a lot of women as
principles of agencies, we
have a lot of special
envoys, and special
representatives."

Turquet added that, while it
is essential to have women
in those positions, it is
equally important that men
in high-level posts are
supportive of women's
rights as well.

"We need women role
models and leaders, but I
think we also need to make
sure that we're holding our
male leaders to account for
gender equality and
women's empowerment,"
she told IPS.

She acknowledged the
"instrumental" role that Ban
Ki-moon has played in
forming UN Women.

Bachelet said that one of
the biggest tasks in
ensuring gender equality
within the United Nations is
to increase the
accountability inside the
system – "so that we can
ensure a bigger female
presence, not only at high,
top level, but also at the
different levels of the U.N."

According to the report, laws and justice systems are what shape
social attitudes.

"We know that laws can change societies," said Michelle Bachelet, UN
Women's executive director and the former president of Chile. But she
noted that "laws are made by people, and they have to represent the
evolution of situations."

That is why the report aims to highlight key actions that governments
and civil society can take to legally and judicially enhance gender
equality. It also demonstrates the possibilities for women to advance
their own rights, noting, for example, the dramatic increase in
sexual assault reporting when police forces are comprised of female
officers.

"Women can play a critical role in driving the change we need to
see," said Bachelet, and the report recommends putting women "on the
front line of law enforcement."

But while, according to Bachelet, "in too many countries the rule of
law still rules women out," Turquet described the vast improvements
around the world in terms of women's legal rights.

"Just a century ago, only two countries in the world allowed women to
vote, and now that right is more or less universal," she said, noting
the number of constitutions that now guarantee gender equality (139)
and the number of countries that have equal pay laws (117).

Despite this progress, however, "we are seeing these enormous
implementation gaps between the laws that exist on paper and
reality," Turquet said.

Sometimes, monetary incentives can narrow these gaps. The report
details women's inheritance rights in Nepal, which were legislated in
the early 1990s but rarely observed until a tax exemption for land
transfers was introduced, motivating men to share land with their
female counterparts.

In most cases, however, simply accessing the justice system is the
greatest challenge to implementing gender equality laws.

First, there is the long and complicated justice chain that women
must navigate before they can attain justice.

In a sexual assault case, for example, the process spans from
reporting the incident to interviewing the victim, to identifying,
interviewing, and charging the suspect, to the eventual trial, and
then the possible conviction. Even in Europe only a fraction of
reported rape cases result in conviction, according to the report.

The report highlights one South African solution to this process: the
One-Stop Shop model, which brings services like health care, legal
advice, the police, and forensic services together "under one roof",
according to Turquet.

"It cuts down on the number of steps that women have to take and
helps to reduce the number of cases that drop out of the system," she
explained, noting a conviction rate of 89 percent - up from the seven
percent national average – in some One-Stop Shop areas.

Another challenge is physically accessing courts for trial.

The Mobile Court model, used primarily in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, provides an effective solution. That country's sheer vastness,
as well as its citizens' pervasive poverty, often prevents women from
attaining justice, according to the report.

"This [Mobile Court] initiative, which is relatively small scale at
the moment, has been incredibly successful at reaching women in
remote rural areas," Turquet told IPS.

"In countries with weak infrastructure, it's probably much cheaper to
use mobile courts than it is to build expensive courtrooms, which,
then, people won't be able to access," she said.

She described a recent case, involving the rape of 40 women and girls
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was tried in a mobile
court. It was the first ever crimes against humanity trial heard in a
mobile court, and it successfully garnered a large number of high-
level convictions, she said.

But, according to Turquet, there is however still a great need for
investment in women's access to justice. She said that 2009 saw 4.2
billion dollars in bilateral donations allocated to justice work, but
of that, only five percent was spent specifically targeting women and
girls.

"There needs to be greater investment in the kind of justice that
women and girls need," she said.

For now, tackling these challenges will be the main objective for UN
Women, which held its first annual Executive Board meeting last week
in New York.

"Legislating is only the first step," according to Bachelet. She
wants to work together with governments towards better implementation
and delivery of justice.

But the six-month-old agency must do so with the minimal funding it
has received. Its budget this year is 300 million dollars – of which
120 million dollars has not been earmarked for specific purposes.

At its commencement, then, "the key for UN Women will be to work with
all our partners to drive forward those goals," said Turquet.

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.